One of my concerns about being retired is becoming one of those people [and I have met a few] who tell you about the one thing they have done in a day and then make out they are leading really busy lives. They will tell you this in all seriousness and genuinely seem to have forgotten what life is like for the working population. These retirees are oblivious to how the workers have to fit in dentist appointments, buying stuff on Ebay and getting the car fixed and all around the nine-to-five job. And that these wage slaves still have to find time to get home and clean the bathroom … and yet all these retirees were these people once. I hope that when I am retired I remember what it was like to feel that the days are running away with you and there is so much to cram in and I also hope I will be the retired person who offers to help out our working friends with tasks to make their life less stressful.
This isn’t that I won’t sometimes revel in the opportunity retirement will offer to just do not very much in a day, to not feel the need to fill my time and to be a one-task-a-day type of person. This is one of the many benefits of retirement and I can’t wait to relax in to this state of being time-rich. I will be able to sweep up the leaves and chat to the neighbours and then spend the rest of the day taking a walk, watching the wren out of the window, practicing some tai chi or curling up in an armchair reading. What I want to avoid doing is telling anyone who will listen about how busy I have been to my working friends, and I hope I never say, ‘I don’t know how I had time to go to work’ just because I had to go for a blood test or I took the time to water the neighbours plants. I hope I remember how lucky I am to be retired and I hope I do not feel the need to justify my existence by pretending I have a lot on my plate.
I will try hard not to become so relaxed that I forget the stresses of pre-retirement days but I hope that all my friends [real and virtual] will please tell me if I become that person!
Back on the road again 